Music to his Ears: The Omega Auction Chronicles, #6

Prologue

Spencer

You can't do this! My mother's outraged voice was loud and shrill as she fought to defend me from the threat of the pack's reigning Alpha.

I can and will, Max’s bored voice retorted. He's already on his third heat and the pack is still supporting him. If he can't bring a mate up to scratch in the next week, we'll have to re-evaluate our options. Max stomped from our small lean-to, the entire structure rattling when he slammed the door behind him.

Mom? Are...are you okay? I slunk out from my hiding spot in the shadows.

Yes, of course, honey. Mom rubbed her tired eyes, trying to hide the tears. I'm not sure what to do about this ultimatum, though. If only your father were still alive.

My father had been the previous pack Alpha, and his father had been before him, so I had been raised a cossetted favorite among the pack despite my god-awful stammer. When Dad had been killed in a freak accident several months earlier, Max had taken charge of the pack and, unfortunately for me, money was tight, and Max and I had never gotten along.

He had begun trying to sell me off as breeding stock almost immediately after taking control and was willing to foist me off on anyone who even sniffed in my direction. To his ongoing irritation, as soon as I opened my mouth to speak, all interested parties had turned tail and run. One particularly unkind Alpha had paused in his flight long enough to compare conversing with me to a battery acid mange dip - and then gone on to tell Max that he would prefer the dip.

Unable to send me to the Omega auction – they wouldn't accept faulty merchandise – Max had found an alternative that in his mind solved all of our problems. It got me off the pack's teat and found me a home - of sorts. The fact that it meant me agreeing to go into service as a prostitute didn't seem to bother him at all. That was what had brought him to our shanty that evening. If I couldn't find a mate in the next week, I’d be shipped off to Howling Hank's Whore House. Classy name, huh?

I ..I should leave, I said, already knowing my mom wouldn't hear of it. There isn't much that is more dangerous for an Omega than going rogue. We both know I wo..won't find a mate and I wo..won't sign the contract with H..Hank.

Let's not rush into anything, Mom said with a frustrated sigh. We have family in other packs. I can call my cousins and see if one of them can take you in for a while.

I started to argue but she hugged me tight. I won't let him send you there, I promise. Just give me a couple of days.

Somehow Max must have gotten wind of our plan to thwart him because while Mom was at work the next day, he came to visit me.

TAKE'EM OFF, HE ORDERED.

Wh..what? I looked up from my book, startled to see him standing in front of me. He'd made so much noise leaving the night before that I couldn't believe I hadn't heard him come in.

Pants off, he ordered again. On your knees.

I cringed a little but did as he ordered, hoping that my compliance would keep him from hitting me. The only other time that he had mounted me was back when he had first taken control of the pack. He'd been unable to finish, and taken his anger out on me with his fists.

He stuffed his partially hard dick into my mouth, battering my lips. It wasn't pleasant, but to my relief, it was over fast as he filled my mouth too quickly to violate me any further. He stuffed his dick back into his pants with a cruel laugh.

See? You were made to be a whore. The only thing that mouth is good for is sucking dick.

He walked out the door and I pulled my pants on, spit his leavings in the toilet and rinsed my mouth. My relief at his exit was short lived. He was back almost immediately and, this time, he wasn’t alone. There was a slender man with glossy black hair and a phony smile with him.

Spencer? The stranger greeted me, holding his hand out. I'm Jack.

I nodded and tried to make my split lip pull up into a smile, wondering if Max had found another Alpha for me to try to impress. I scented the air, but I didn't smell Alpha. In fact, I didn’t smell anything. I shook his hand and jerked back at a sharp pain in my wrist. I didn't even have time to question what had happened before the room began to spin. Then everything went dark.

I woke up in a tiny room on the second floor of an unfamiliar building. I hadn't been awake long when Jack bustled in carrying a change of clothes and a plate of food.

Wh..what happened? I asked.

Max decided that my brokering service might have better luck matching you with an Alpha than he's had. He has consigned you to me for now. Jack smiled. It was possible that the chain fastening my ankle to the cot was having a negative impact on my usually trusting nature, but I wasn’t reassured. I have an excellent record for Omega placement.

I just nodded. As long as I wasn't headed straight to the whore house, anything might be an improvement over Max's care.

My lack of faith in Jack’s self-proclaimed good intentions strengthened when he drove me to a bar and locked me in a large cage that was already packed with distressed Omegas; some of whom were already exhibiting signs of neglect.

I FOUND A SPOT WHERE I could lean against the bars – there was nowhere near enough room in the cage for us sit – and tried to stay calm. With so many Omegas there against their will, the level of distress pheromones was overwhelming.

As the days went on, captivity got increasingly difficult to tolerate. Crammed in with standing room only, it wasn't possible to doze off for more than an hour at a time before the masses would shift and jolt you awake. The food – when they remembered to feed us – was barely edible, the bucket of water provided for us to share was cloudy and tasted faintly metallic, and bathroom breaks were few and far between. The only thing in my favor was that I was the most ordinary Omega in the cage, so I wasn't singled out by the guards for special treatment. Thank the gods for that.

I need your attention.

I had just dozed off when an unfamiliar Alpha's command voice wrapped around me, waking me up.

My name is Colt. I’m here to get you out. I’m going to open the gate, and I need for you to walk slowly out the back door and into the truck waiting in the loading zone. Does anyone need to visit the restroom before we leave? He opened the door and ushered the responding Omegas out, urging them to hurry.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING to do with us? I asked, amazed that my voice hadn't quavered.

We’re going to take you to our pack headquarters where you will be safe. Then we’ll try to track down where each of you belongs.

Out the back door was a box truck with rubber matting on the floor, large ventilation screens, and air conditioning. There was also plenty of room to sit down, so I promptly plopped down in a corner and removed my shoes to rub my aching feet. I swallowed the protein bar I was handed in three bites and washed it down with a bottle of water. Then, I settled in to sleep for the duration of the ride.

It turned out that Raphael Borrero, a member of the Enforcement Division of the Council of Packs, had been tracking a group of suspected Omega thieves for months. In a remarkably lucky coincidence, I had been added to Jack's collection just in time to be rescued.

The truck took us to the Coruscation pack territory and, to my amazement, the pack harboring us just happened to be werewolves. Werewolves! I thought they were a myth!

Shortly after we arrived, I met with Clint - the reigning werewolf Alpha - to complete my intake interview. True to form, I could barely get a word out. To my surprise, though, Clint was kind and waited patiently as I stammered out answers to his questions. When he asked who he should contact to return me to my pack, I hung my head.

N...n...no one, Alpha, I managed to get out. Th..th..they don't want me back.

Nonsense. He grinned at me. A cute little thing like you? Of course they do.

I shook my head. I..I wasn't st..stolen. Our Alpha s..s..sold me to Jack.

I see. Instead of the anger that I had expected to see when he realized he had wasted resources rescuing me, he just looked sad. In that case, we'll be your new pack. He patted my shoulder, and I was suddenly drowning in comforting Alpha pheromones. It was heavenly. Go on over to get some food. He gestured towards the platters that his pregnant mate was laying out. Everything will be better after a meal and some sleep.

Chapter One

Spencer

The months that I spent with the werewolf pack after our rescue were easily the happiest I had known since my dad died. The pack was run by the Alpha that I had met when I arrived, Clint, and his twin brother, Colt. Clint's Omega, Trevor, was sweet and kind. Not long after we arrived, he had adorable twin pups, Adrian and Eric.

Colby, the Blood Valley Pack's Omega, was self-assured and irreverent with a wicked sense of humor. He spent a lot of time with us the further his pregnancy progressed because his Alpha, Rafe, didn't want him traveling. Colby seemed to suffer from pregnancy-related mood swings. On any given day, it was impossible to tell how he would react to anything. Some days he flew off the handle at his Alpha, who would just smile indulgently. On other days, he wandered around muttering about animal crackers. He was definitely the most unique Omega I had ever met.

There were other shifters – even other bonded pairs - who wandered through regularly. Mostly wolf shifters but also dragons, bears, and a few others. It was easily the most diverse shifter community I could have ever imagined.

Since I had already told the Alpha that there was no need to try and return my pack, I was left to my own devices as the other rescued Omegas scurried to and from meetings before disappearing, one by one. Finally, there were only about a dozen of us left without a pack to return to.

In addition to taking us in, the Coruscation Alpha had offered us help to find a mate or training for a job, whichever we preferred. One of the abandoned Omegas, Thane, had met an Alpha and they were already bonded. Knowing that the odds of that happening for me were absurdly low, I usually didn't bother coming out to meet the Alphas that wandered through.

A few were looking for a mate, but most were simply friends of the pack who had volunteered to participate in Trevor’s Touch Therapy – a program where Alphas snuggled with us for a few minutes a day to keep us from going into neglect. Regardless of why they were there, I was sure that none were looking for an Omega who couldn't hold the simplest of conversations without making their ears bleed, so I kept to myself. Luckily, I responded well to the anti-neglect medication. Since there wasn’t any true need for me to socialize, I began looking for a job.

Unlike Levi, who had immediately enrolled in accounting classes and was already studying for his certification, or Sebastian, who had begged a nursing internship from Doctor Morgan, I didn't have a clue what sort of job I was looking for. Instead, I spent my time testing out the various jobs available through the job share program. All of the office positions required telephones, so those were automatically dropped for obvious reasons. It didn't take me long to rule out childcare - and by association teaching - after Trevor had to release me from a closet that a group of pups locked me in during a school story time visit.

Cook was crossed through next when Trevor joked that you could always tell when my meals were done by the shrill squeal of the smoke detector sounding. When the listing came up for someone to work at the library, I only hesitated until Trevor assured me that it wouldn't involve any unsupervised involvement with the pups – six hours in a closet was more than enough, thank you!

I'd always loved to read – and had even dreamed of being a writer someday – so it wasn't much of a surprise when library clerk ended up being my dream job. It was quiet, relaxing, and there were no locks on the closets. I could work at my own pace, and there was almost no chance of me accidentally burning the building down in the performance of my duties.

I was plugging away one morning, humming under my breath while I shelved books, when someone behind me cleared their throat.

C..can I help you? I turned and found myself face to chest with an unfamiliar Alpha. He looked to have a couple of years on my twenty-four, but not many. He was handsome, with longish dark brown hair that hung in messy curls almost to his shoulders and bright yellow eyes.

Yes, please. He spoke softly for an Alpha, but most beings did whisper in the library. I was looking for your history section.

Of c..course, Alpha. I hurried down off the step stool I was using to reach the higher shelves. This way. He followed me to the second floor, where the pack's historical tomes were stored. W..were you looking for anything in par..particular?

No. The large man smiled at me and an odd shiver ran down my spine. I'm just looking to keep myself occupied until Cian returns.

Oh! I gasped, taking a step back as I realized who I was speaking to. You’re the dra..dragon!

The village had been abuzz for days about the dragon in our midst but I’d never expected to